General’s video under scrutiny

The regulation-bound military isn’t the best place to push the rules, as Indiana Adjutant Gen. Martin Umbarger is learning. The inspector general of the Army is investigating allegations of impropriety by the Indiana National Guard leader after complaints that he recorded a fundraising video for an evangelical Christian organization.

Umbarger appeared in Army uniform to endorse Centurion’s Watch, an Indianapolis-based Christian group that offers marriage counseling to military families. It appeared on the group’s website but was taken down at Umbarger’s request after a formal complaint by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. A Facebook post about the group’s upcoming marriage seminar in Fort Wayne apparently brought the video to the attention of the military director for American Atheists.

Umbarger told the Indianapolis Star that he recorded the video to thank a group that supports military families. Gov. Mitch Daniels, who appointed Umbarger, said that if the National Guard leader’s endorsement was a mistake, it was an honest one. Sen. Dan Coats and Rep. Marlin Stutzman issued statements Wednesday in support of the adjutant general.

In June, Washington Air National Guard officials charged that two airmen photographed nursing their babies for a breastfeeding awareness campaign violated military policy by “using the uniform to further a cause, promote a product or imply an endorsement.”

The Air Force has no policy on breastfeeding in uniform, according to the Air Force Times, but it does forbid airmen to use the uniform to advance the cause of an outside organization.

Mississippi less mighty

Dams along the Mississippi upriver from the Ohio River allow the Army Corps of Engineers to keep the big river flowing, even in times of severe drought.

But the picture below the Ohio isn’t pretty.

More than 100 barges and towboats are stranded. An 11-mile stretch of the Mighty Mississippi is closed near Greenville, Miss., as are five harbors in four states. Riverboat cruises are cut short.

In a bad year for farmers, the low levels are causing more concern for agriculture because it takes longer and costs more to move grain south and move fertilizer north.

The river hasn’t bottomed out record-wise, but it’s getting close.